How To Repair A Roland Digital Piano

It is unfortunate that many musicians do not know how to repair a Roland digital piano, since many of the problems can be fixed with minimal technical experience. Some of the most common issues with a Roland digital piano can be corrected without even having to open up the chassis. Others require a bit more patience and technical proficiency. If you find that your Roland digital piano is not operating as well as it used to and you want to avoid paying a technician, you will want to keep reading.

You will need:

Roland Digital Piano Model Manual

Media Storage Device Specified In Manual

If the first repair does not satisfy, you may also need:

Phillips Head Screwdriver Set

One Nickel Plated Lithium Ion Cell Battery

Soldering Iron

Anti-Static Solder Sucker Desoldering tool

Before you begin to repair a Roland digital piano, it is important to back up the information you have saved, such as user patches and global settings. You can do this by saving the information to a memory card or by exporting a MIDI bulk dump to your Digital Audio Workstation. Since the Roland digital piano has a electronic circuit board, a factory reset is oftentimes needed to erase any glitches and correct tuning issues. This is the most common fix for a digital piano and also the easiest to perform.

If you want to repair your Roland digital piano with a factory reset, you will need to know what model you have. Each model will have its own factory reset function, so visit Roland's support page to view and download the manual for your specific keyboard. The keyboard initialize function usually consists of powering on the digital keyboard and pressing a certain combination of keys at the same time.

If a factory reset does not repair a Roland digital piano completely for you, try changing the internal battery. All Roland digital piano models contain a lithium battery to save internal settings, which need to be replaced every five to ten years. You can do a simple test to see if your internal battery is the culprit. Just power your digital pain on, then play a series of the same note/key in staccato fashion for six to eight seconds. If you notice any inconsistencies in tuning, dropped notes, or dimmed LCD screen indications, then you will need to repair your Roland digital piano by replacing its internal battery.

Before you open up the piano, make sure to power it off and remove any power cables. This can not only save the life of your machine but yours as well. Take precautions to ensure that you are also grounded, as to avoid static discharge into the electrical components of the instrument. After you do that, you will be ready to open the keyboard up.

Turn the piano upside down and begin to remove the screws from the undercarriage. Take note of each screws size and placement, for it is easy to get them mixed up at the point of putting it back together if you do not. You may find that labeling them with paint is the easiest way to keep them organized.

Now that the digital piano is opened up, it is time to locate the battery. Most internal cell batteries are coin-shaped. Their silver color is easily distinguishable. Once you have located the battery, slide it out of its holder. If the battery is one of the less-commonly used types that require soldering to hold it in place, you will need to need to remove the solder connection by heating it up with the soldering iron, then removing the excess solder with the desoldering tool. Be careful not to let the soldering iron come into contact with the battery itself. Once you have inserted the new battery, close the chassis up.

If these steps do repair a Roland digital piano for you, then your problem may have to be addressed by a trained technician. However, at least you know that you didn't throw money away for a repair that you could have done yourself. Hopefully these pro tricks will get you back in business.